Transaction Publishers Joins the Espresso Book Machine Network
New York, NY (May 18, 2012) – Transaction Publishers, a major independent publisher of social science books, has signed the Lightning Source Espresso Addendum, making a growing number of its titles available via the Espresso Book Machine’s “digital-to-print at retail (DPR)” sales channel.
“Transaction is pleased that such a large number of our new and backlist titles will now be available from The Espresso Book Machine,” says Mary Curtis, President of Transaction Publishers. “The idea that our print books will be instantly available to readers anywhere in the world adds an exciting new dimension to our publishing program, and will be welcomed by authors and readers alike.”
“With Espresso Book Machines available in universities, libraries, and independent bookstores, we offer academic publishers a unique sales channel and opportunity to keep their entire list ‘in print.’ We are delighted that Transaction Publishers is the latest quality, academic publisher to join our growing network,” says Dane Neller, CEO of On Demand Books.
The EBM is the only digital-to-print at-retail solution on the market today. With the push of a button, a title can be printed with a full-color cover, bound, and trimmed to any standard size. In a matter of minutes, it emerges from the EBM as a bookstore-quality paperback book, which the customer can pay for and walk out the store with right there and then.
Content from publishers, now including Red Wheel/Weiser, is fed to the EBM via EspressNet, On Demand Books’ growing digital network of titles (currently numbering over seven million). Much like an iTunes for books, EspressNet retrieves, encrypts, transmits, and catalogues books from a multitude of English and foreign language content providers, including public domain, in-copyright, and self-published titles. Through the SelfServe software, writers can format, design, edit, and upload their books for printing through the EBM, and for inclusion in EspressNet. SelfServe will soon also be able to convert print files to the ePub format suitable for e-readers.
The EBM provides a new sales channel for publishers, and vastly increases the availability of titles for physical bookstores, significantly reducing loss of sales due to books being out-of-stock. In addition, the EBM technology offers libraries and bricks-and-mortar retailers the opportunity to become community self-publishing centers, providing a new distribution platform for self-published authors. And of course the EBM improves overall efficiency and environmental sustainability by eliminating shipping and the return and pulping of unwanted books.
